Washtenaw Community College, WCC BE250

Presentation Title:Introduction to the Java Expert System Shell (JESS)

Summary:Sandia National Laboratory's Jess is a rule engine implemented in Java and based on the Rete pattern-matching algorithm. The entire Jess distribution consists of the Jess API, a LISP-like scripting language (also called Jess), and an integrated development environment called the JessDE which is an Eclipse plugin. Any Java developers who write complex business logic will benefit from this talk. Business rules will be mentioned, but not glorified as the canonical example of Jess's abilities.

If you want to learn how to add powerful reasoning capability to your Java applications, then this talk is for you.

Speaker Bio:Jason Morris is the owner of Morris Technical Solutions LLC, specializing in Java web-application development and rule-engine applications.He has more than 15 years in the software engineering field, spanning many application domains and comprising many different functional roles.Currently, Jason is involved with the USAF to semantically enable human resources information systems via custom ontologies.He is also a technical marketing and services consultant for Sandia National Laboratories, where he provides custom training and development services for licensees of Jess, the Java Expert Systems Shell (www.jessrules.com).His latest joint-development effort with the University of Sydney (Australia) is a rule-based expert system called SINFERS for computation of soil properties from field data.

From 2006-2007, Jason was a GAAN Fellow at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts where he was pursuing a PhD in Computer Science and working on Intelligent Tutoring Systems.He holds a B.S. in Applied Engineering Sciences from Michigan State University, a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University, and a M.S. in Engineering and Technology Management from Portland State University.

This talk had its origin in a workshop that Joel Neely and I did at the Java Posse Roundup last March. Joel presented this talk internally at FedEx, and I presented it at Chariot Solutions' Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise conference in Philadelphia. I recently updated it for the AAJUG talk.

I didn't even touch on generics, traits, classes, and objects in this talk. So I've posted my earlier talk (from CodeMash) which included information about these as well:

So, this Tech Events in Ann Arbor post for the week of September 22 finds yours truly speaking at the Ann Arbor Java User Group on Tuesday, September 23 at 6:30. The meeting will be held at Washtenaw Community College in room BE270. I'll be talking about "Scala for Java Programmers". What CAN you do with this language? And why do you care? Is it a Java replacement? We'll explore some of the corners of the functional aspects of Scala, but object-oriented programmers will feel quite at home in this talk. Please come. I would love your feedback on the language (and on the talk).

On Friday join SRT for lightning talks, from 3:30-5. As always, lightning talks are open to all. Come to do a 5 minute talk or to listen!

Next week, the Ann Arbor Computer Society meeting will feature Bill Heitzeg discussing JBoss and .NET. AACS meetings are free and open to the public. AACS sponsors pizza and soft drinks. Members qualify for door prizes.

It's the first week of the month again … so there are user group meetings galore.

Wednesday, June 4 at 6:00 pm is the Ann Arbor Computer Society meeting. The topic is PostgreSQL 8.3 and Beyond. PostgreSQL is a free and open source database. The meeting will be held at SRT Solutions, 206 S. Fifth Ave, Suite 200, Ann Arbor, MI. AACS meetings are free and open to the public. Supporting memberships of $20/year are available, which help to support the pizza and soft drinks served at meetings as well as the door prizes.

On Thursday, June 5, the Michigan Python User Group will meet at SRT Solutions at 7:00 pm. The topic is TBD but some ideas that have been thrown around include: Google App Engine, non-relational databases, and Jython. I'm sure it will be an enjoyable meeting, as always. It's a great group, very casual and welcoming (and the meeting is free). Please join us.

And Friday is the "on" Friday for Lightning Talks at SRT. Head over to SRT at around 3:30 pm for 5 minute talks on any tech topic of your choosing. We'll go until about 5 so stop by whenever you are free on Friday afternoon. SRT's lightning talks are free and open to everyone in the community, both for speaking and listening. We think that the entire community benefits when we all know what others are doing.

On Tuesday April 22, Joe O'Brien, famed Ruby developer and Columbus area business owner, will be speaking at the Ann Arbor Java User Group. He will be discussing JRuby, Ruby that runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Sun is putting a lot of resources toward dynamic languages on the JVM. First, they hired 2 JRuby developers. Just recently, they hired 2 Jython developers. Microsoft is similarly loading up, for IronPython and IronRuby.

Anyhow, come out on Tuesday and hear Joe talk about JRuby. The meeting starts at 7:30 pm at Washtenaw Community College (room BE260), but come early for the networking at 7:00. Pizza and soft drinks will be provided.

And, on Friday April 25, SRT is continuing with the bi-weekly lightning talks. We're mixing up the format a bit, going to a more traditional lightning talk length of 5 minutes (we had previously allowed 10, but we've babied everyone long enough!). Instead of starting at 3, we're going to start at 3:30. But we have an open door policy, so if you break free at 4 and want to stop by, just DO! This week, we'll have snacks. It's Nate's last day of working as our intern. We're sad that he's leaving, but we know that he will do GREAT in Manhattan.

I was planning to talk about Scala at the Ann Arbor Java User Group meeting this week, but I'm going to have to cancel. I came down with the flu, and then pneumonia and I'm still coughing too much to be able to do a talk. I'm sure that we will reschedule it for a later date.

I will be doing an introduction to Scala at the Ann Arbor Java User Group meeting on Tuesday, March 26. The AAJUG wordpress site is broken, but hopefully people will know about the talk and attend anyhow.

Here's my abstract:

Scala is a multi paradigm language, offering both object-oriented and functional programming that runs on the Java Virtual Machine. The proliferation of multi-core machines is driving interest in functional languages, as they offer a simplified approach toward concurrency. This talk discusses why you should care about Scala as an emerging language, describes unique features of the language, and uses programming examples to demonstrate its use.

AAJUG meetings are held at Washtenaw Community College, Room BE 260, starting at 6:30 pm.

On Thursday, January 3, at 7 pm is the monthly Michigan Python User Group meeting. Discussions will likely center around a project called Python Underground and I've heard rumors of a discussion of the Rails is a Ghetto blog post by Zed Shaw.

This Friday, January 4, we will hold lightning talks from 3-5. Anyone is welcome to attend (and speak for 10 minute segments). I'll be doing a talk on Scala, a preview of a section of my upcoming CodeMash talk.

CodeMash is, of course, Jan 10-11 (and the evening of the 9th) in Sandusky, OH at the Kalahari Resort and Indoor Water Park. If you are planning to attend, register SOON at $175 for the 2.5 days to avoid the procrastinator fee (of $250).

And the Rich Internet Application Jam will be held at SRT's offices, from January 14-16. Early bird registration goes through January 4, so register before then to save $100 from the $500 fee. Note: the registration fee includes a copy of FlexBuilder.

The Ann Arbor Java Users Group will be meeting on Tuesday, November 27, with David Ward of JBoss speaking on "JBoss Seam and the Red Hat Developer Studio". Food and networking at 6:30, meeting will start at 7:15. Zattoo is sponsoring (food and location), so they are asking for RSVPs to jsyang@zattoo.com. See below.

"JBoss Seam and the Red Hat Developer Studio" – JBoss Seam is a modern enterprise Java application framework, integrating the best practices learned from past frameworks, and innovating in areas where they have been deficient. Using JBoss Seam, developers are more productive as they leverage Seam's powerful yet simple component model, state management facilities, presentation and business tier integration, and more. The Red Hat Developer Studio (RHDS) is a set of Eclipse-based tools that are pre-configured for JBoss Enterprise Middleware, offering significant time-savings and value to developers. A summary of JBoss Seam and RHDS features will be presented during this technical session, followed by a detailed demonstration of creating a Seam application using RHDS.

Presenter BIO:

David Ward is a Solutions Architect within the JBoss division of Red Hat. He has over 12 years experience designing and developing enterprise systems across various fields such as online commerce, payroll services, pharmaceutical applications, real estate, printing, document management, inventory management and more. He has authored numerous Java related articles and whitepapers. David is a longtime JBoss evangelist and joined Red Hat in October 2006.